Political landmark for Nancy Pelosi: She marks 25 years in elected politics this week

It was 25 years ago this week — April 7, 1987 to be exact — that a mother of five named Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi won the first of what would be a very long string of election victories, a critical marker on the road to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Pelosi’s long march in politics, culminating in her becoming the Speaker of the House, began when she was the victor in that 1987 bare knuckles special election battle to be the Democratic nominee in what was then California’s Fifth Congressional district.Michael Yaki, her former aide and “flack” remembers the moment in a very personal SFChronicle/SFGate.com blog post.
Yaki, who became the senior aide to Speaker Pelosi, is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and currently an appointed member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights). He calls Pelosi, who is now the House Minority Leader, “The Once and Future Speaker.”
So here’s a blast from the past: the news analysis about Pelosi’s first victory, dated April 8, 1987 and written by then Chronicle political editor Jerry Roberts, now one of the grand high poobahs (along with Phil Trounstine) of the great political blog Calbuzz.com.
It’s a trip to the time machine — an interesting early look at a big moment in what has been Pelosi’s long political career.

Check out all the familiar names:

By Jerry Roberts, Chronicle political editor

Nancy Pelosi’s victory last night was both a personal triumph and a victory for the local Democratic establishment in a continuing political turf war.

The vote marked just the first of several major battles in San Fran- cisco this year, as the city moves through a period of realignment.

With Mayor Dianne Feinstein in the last months of her final term, the political maneuvering that has characterized the congressional campaign is likely to continue.

Yesterday’s vote has major impact, not only for Pelosi but also for members of the Board of Supervisors, the city’s gay community and San Francisco’s representatives in Sacramento.

Pelosi finished first in a field of 14 candidates for the House of Representatives seat left vacant by the death of Sala Burton, who endorsed Pelosi on her deathbed.

When Sala Burton died on February 1, some observers contended that the leaders of the liberal Democratic coalition built by her late husband, Representative Phillip Burton, no longer would play a dominant role in San Francisco politics.

But Pelosi’s victory over four Democratic supervisors on the ballot – who attacked her in a bruising campaign as the hand-picked candidate of the party “machine” – proves that the Burton name still carries plenty of clout in San Francisco.

“Nancy’s candidacy is a test of loyalties for constituencies that historically have supported me and my brother and Sala, ” former Representative John Burton, Phillip’s brother and Pelosi’s campaign chairman, said during the campaign. Last night, Burton said those constituencies had passed the test.

“They formed the base of her campaign and she enlarged upward on it, ” said a jubilant Burton at Pelosi’s headquarters.

The biggest loser in the race may have the Board of Supervisors. Four members – Supervisors Harry Britt, Bill Maher, Carol Ruth Silver and Doris Ward – ran and stressed their experience in office, only to be rejected by voters in favor of Pelosi, who has never held elected office.

Their relatively poor performance at the polls, particularly by Silver and Ward, may signal dissatisfaction with their performance at City Hall, according to some observers, which could add impetus to a new plan for district election of supervisors now being debated in the neighborhoods.

“There was a general anti-City Hall feeling, ” said pollster Mervin Field. “The voters thought that the establishment candidate (Pelosi) was head and shoulders above the others.”

The election was bittersweet for the city’s politically active gay community, which gave broad support to gay Supervisor Britt – but not enough to elect him.

The day after Sala Burton died, one of Britt’s campaign aides boasted that it was “Harry’s race to lose” because of the likelihood that Britt would win a massive vote among the homosexual community.

Britt did lose, even though he apparently ran very well in gay neighborhoods. But that political base was not enough to let him overtake Pelosi’s much broader coalition of women, older Democrats and a few Republicans.

Field said the results raised questions about the idea that gays represent a monolithic bloc.

“The homosexual vote may not be homogenous, ” said Field. “As soon as any group gets large, it starts fragmenting. Other societal forces, rather than sexual orientation, may be impinging on political behavior” of gays.

For Pelosi, yesterday’s election was a sweet victory, coming as it did after a series of bitter personal attacks by her rivals.

Several of her supporters downplayed the significance of power politics in her victory, saying Pelosi herself deserved most of the credit.

“She was simply the best candidate, ” said Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. “None of the phony charges about a political machine that doesn’t exist and never did exist had anything to do with it.”

“You’ve got to keep in mind it’s still the quality of the candidate that makes the difference, ” Brown added.

Pelosi’s win last night was just the first step in her attempt to consolidate power. A Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, she first faces the formality of a June runoff before she goes to Congress.

And, although she finished first yesterday, her vote total represents something less than a resounding mandate.

Pelosi won less than half of the ballots cast by only one-third of the registered voters who bothered to turn out in a congressional district that includes 75 percent of the city.

To become a major player in city politics, Pelosi will have to prove that her boasts of being well-connected in Washington were more than rhetoric, by delivering, for example, on federal funds for the AIDS crisis, which she said would be her most immediate priority in Washington.

Pelosi’s victory was in some ways a victory for several entrenched San Francisco Democrats who supported her candidacy, including Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy and Speaker Brown, and who have been under attack by other politicians for trying to gain influence in a politically volatile situation.

Another challenge to the influence of McCarthy and Brown will come with this fall’s mayor’s race.